The government should come up with a new national numbering plan for fixed-line and mobile networks, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India suggested on Friday.
TRAI said this should be done in order to meet the expected growth in the subscriber base.
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TRAI, besides suggesting a new national numbering plan, also said that the government should also enlist all newly allocated numbering resources for fixed-line as well as mobile services every year.
“The ongoing plan implemented in 2003, was developed keeping in mind the projections till the year 2033,” TRAI said in a statement.
“After 17 years into the National Numbering Plan, adequate availability of numbering resources is threatened because of an increase in the range of services and massive growth in the number of connections, especially in the mobile segment,” TRAI added in its recommendations.
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Among other suggestions, TRAI has sought that all calls from fixed-line to mobile phones should be prefixed with a ‘0’ on dialling.
Furthermore, TRAI also asked the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to reallocate numbering resources surrendered by operators that have shut down.
TRAI further suggested all 10-digit SIM-based machine-to-machine connections should be shifted to the 13-digit series
TRAI also suggested changes to codes for short-distance charging areas, which are telecom areas smaller than the size of a district.
“The primary challenge here is the need to generate adequate numbering resources to cater to the emerging demand in the next 30 years… sufficient numbering resources can be made available for the fixed-line (and) mobile services through alternative methods,” TRAI said.